By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)

April 28, 2016 08:00:39 AM

MUMBAI (Scrap Monster): The jewellers in the city who were on a three-day protest by closing down shops, have called off their strike on government’s assurance that all concerns with regards to introduction of 1% excise duty will be addressed shortly. According to Nashik Jewellers Association, the strike has been ended and all shops have resumed business on Wednesday.

The Union government in its budget for the current fiscal year had imposed 1% excise duty on gold and studded silver jewellery sold in the country. The jewellers across the country had gone on strike from March 1st onwards. The 43-day old strike was suspended temporarily for 10 days following government’s assurance that necessary action will be taken after consultation with industry participants. Upon receiving no response from government, the jewellers had again decided to go on a three-day strike starting April 25th Monday.

Meantime, the representative body of jewellers held meeting with the government. It was decided to form a 20-member team comprising of members from different associations across the country. Further, the government assured that all issues pertaining to excise duty, PAN card and hallmarking will be discussed with the committee. Based on the government assurance to settle the issues at the earliest, the Jewellers’ Association decided to call off the strike on third day.

The Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had defended the government’s decision to impose 1% excise duty on gold jewellery. The Minister had noted that there is no reason why a luxury item like gold should be kept out of manufacturing tax like excise duty.

According to the Association, the members are willing to pay 1% tax, but not in the form of excise duty. It had recently proposed to the government about their willingness to pay 1% tax in the form of Local Body Tax (LBT) or some other tax.

As per rough estimates, jewellers have suffered loss of at least INR 750 crores due to the strikes.